Cybernetic Serendipity: A Walkthrough With Jasia Reichardt (2014) ICA 2024-10-22 | Cybernetic Serendipity: A Walkthrough With Jasia Reichardt (2014)
Impact Driver┃A new choreographic commission by Eve Stainton ICA 2023-08-09 | Tickets at ica.art/impact-driverArtist and performance maker Eve Stainton releases their new choreographic commission, Impact Driver. Featuring live welding, movement, and live sound, scored by Leisha Thomas and Mica Levi.Impact Driver is interested in methodologies for constructing thriller-like suspense. How suspense can be sustained as the main event, in the absence of a climax or traditional resolution. Borrowing the logic from a welding workshop, Stainton foregrounds activities that require live negotiation and decision making; making visible how scenes and objects take their shape, and continue to move through meanings. Atmospheres, garments, feelings and materials, generative and in tension.Working with time-based notions of being ‘caught in the act’ and ‘on tenter hooks’, Stainton explores how suspense as a rumbling undercurrent has the potential to punctuate lesbian and trans-masc identities. Haunting, time stretching, absurdist.‘Welding is potent for me in so many ways- its strong alchemical presence, its extreme theatricality, its capacity for danger/excitement/drama/power/thrill, its sensuality, its brashness.’ – Eve StaintonFeaturing an ensemble from different creative backgrounds who don’t usually work in the field of dance, this research continues Stainton’s work in celebrating the gender non-conforming lesbian and trans-masc experience, of which there are many, and what foregrounding these identities means to the white western Contemporary Dance canon.
Helke Misselwitz on her early films & the influence of photography ICA 2023-07-19 | As one of the most significant documentary filmmakers of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Helke Misselwitz first gained national recognition within East Germany for her 1988 feature film After Winter Comes Spring. In this, as in much of her work, her sensitive and perceptive interview style creates an intimate frame through which to view the private lives of her contributors. Misselwitz tirelessly seeks out personal stories from ordinary people, an approach which occasionally brought her into conflict with film censors when these stories did not conform to official narratives. Her talent as an interviewer is more than matched by her technical mastery; with each stunning composition, Misselwitz reveals how individuals move through the world they inhabit, highlighting the subtleties of relations between the individual and the collective. Helke Misselwitz’s work captures the dying years of the GDR through the lens of those who lived through it, providing an extraordinary portrait from a country which no longer exists.This conversation with Helke and Emily Mason took on Sunday 25 September 2022, as part of the programme Portraits from an Other Germany: The Early Films of Helke Misselwitz. More here: https://www.ica.art/portraits-from-an-other-germany-helke-misselwitz
Payal Kapadia on the politicalness of love (extract) ICA 2023-05-16 | The director discusses her Cannes-winning first film at FRAMES of REPRESENTATION 2021.Following the UK Premiere of A Night of Knowing Nothing as part of FRAMES of REPRESENTATION 2021, first-time director Payal Kapadia discusses the making and implications of her Cannes-winning work with Nico Marzano.You can watch the full video here: tinyurl.com/2nx2r3d6
Slavoj Zizek on levels of stupidity (extract) ICA 2023-05-16 | Continental philosopher Slavoj Žižek and Paul A. Taylor (author of Žižek and The Media) explore the difficulty of conveying philosophical ideas within today's media.2011Watch the full video here: tinyurl.com/2nx2r3d6
Paul Preciado on identity politics (extract) ICA 2023-05-16 | Philosopher and writer Paul B. Preciado discusses agency, gender, dissent and subjectivity with queer theorist Jack Halberstam, in a talk recorded in February 2020 as part of Critical Conversations.Building on Preciado and Halberstam’s respective bodies of work, this conversation expands on forms of living beyond the constraints of encoded gender and unpacks the propositions of Preciado’s publication, An Apartment on Uranus (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020).You can watch the full video here: tinyurl.com/yc7rnyms
Chelsea Manning on visibility (extract) ICA 2023-05-16 | Technologist Chelsea Manning is in conversation with artist and writer James Bridle, discussing the rise of artificial intelligence and the role of AI in public policy, the state of the data economy, and the issues faced by transgender people today. A network security expert, Manning is a vocal advocate for government transparency and LGBTQ+ rights. Among topics to be explored with Bridle are the emergence of details surrounding the Panama Papers and Edward Snowden, as well the relationship of digital technologies to democracy – if, as their use by Cambridge Analytica shows, digital tools can be manipulated to undermine democratic processes, the pair also consider ways in which democracy in the digital age could yet be restored, indeed enhanced.2018You can watch the full video here: tinyurl.com/2e3vn3hd
Hortence Spillers on leadership (extract) ICA 2023-05-16 | Literary critic and black feminist scholar Hortense Spillers and sociologist Gail Lewis discuss the impossibility of black women’s claims to and inclusion in ‘womanhood’, and the implications this has for contemporary black feminist politics. This talk is introduced by sociology professor Akwugo Emejulu and was part of Fugitive Feminism.The full video can be found here: tinyurl.com/52k6pukb
Edward Said & Salman Rushdie [1986] ICA 2023-05-15 | In 1986, Edward Said and Salman Rushdie sat down to talk at the ICA. Professor Said launched his book After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives at the ICA and discussed his and the collective Palestinian identity, exile, return and the right to return. Much of what they discussed played out the the following year, during the First Intifada.Reshared on Monday 15 May 2023.Time stamps: 00:00 - Intro by Salman Rushdie03:13 - Rushdie reads 'The Earth is closing on us'04:34 - The first part of Said's book05:46 - The Palestinian experience 07:49 - Part two of Said's book; inside/outside08:45 - Inside Palestinian-ness 09:28 - Cult of physical strength; a letter11:02 - Invasions of the interior 12:15 - Zionism and historical context12:50 - Part three: Exile13:25 - What happens to landless people?17:00 - Palestinians in New York19:12 - Ability to publish work in US20:21 - Treated like a diplomat of terrorism22:25 - To be a NYC Palestinian in Palestine 24:28 -What is/is there a Palestinian nation 26:44 - Codes of being34:30 - Tell the story from the beginning, again37:14 - The unheard voices of Palestinian women 43:13 - Anti-zionism not antisemitism 48:55 - To be a non-muslim Palestinian 52:06 - After The Last Sky, turning inward54:54 - Audience questions begin55:37 - 'If you speak to Jewish audiences what do you tell them about the future of Jews in Palestine?'1:01:23 - 'Have you developed a system to succinctly discuss this topic when asked?'1:04:03 - 'Justice/morality/where/who is the court that hears it?'1:08:28 - 'Less people are recognising this grievance, how can your idea of communication change this?'1:11:07 - The fate of Arafat and Palestinians 1:12:49 - 'Self determination or, moreover, عودة (eawda, return)'
Corpo/Realities I: Towards Documentary Choreography ICA 2023-05-04 | * Tickets available to the 2022 edition of Choreographic Devices at ica.art/choreographic-devices-2 *Corpo/Realities I: Towards Documentary ChoreographyOfri Cnaani in conversation with Samaneh Moafi and Arkadi ZaidesCorpo/Realities – A series of one-on-one encounters between theoreticians and practitioners that use embodied and spatial practices in order to question social, political, legal and technological realities.Recorded for Choreographic Devices 2022 at the ICA in London, Saturday 11 June 2022.
Corpo/Realities II: The Right to Bodily Integrity ICA 2023-05-04 | * Tickets available to the 2022 edition of Choreographic Devices at ica.art/choreographic-devices-2 *Corpo/Realities II: The Right to Bodily IntegrityOfri Cnaani in conversation with Sandra Noeth and Sarah KeenanCorpo/Realities – A series of one-on-one encounters between theoreticians and practitioners that use embodied and spatial practices in order to question social, political, legal and technological realities.Recorded for Choreographic Devices 2022 at the ICA in London, Saturday 11 June 2022.
First Set of Entries Toward a Glossary of Choreographic Materialities ICA 2023-05-04 | * Tickets available to the 2022 edition of Choreographic Devices at ica.art/choreographic-devices-2 *First Set of Entries Toward a Glossary of Choreographic MaterialitiesD. Graham Burnett / Martin Hargreaves/ Edgar Schmitz/ Noémie SolomonThe glossary session is part of Schmitz’ ongoing CHOREOGRAPHIC series concerned with the materialities of composite productions, the (dis-)articulation of movement and the affordances of infrastructural form.Recorded for Choreographic Devices 2022 at the ICA in London, Saturday 11 June 2022.
How Does Smoke Find its Destination? ICA 2023-05-04 | * Tickets available to the 2022 edition of Choreographic Devices at ica.art/choreographic-devices-2 *How Does Smoke Find its Destination?Raimundas MalašauskasOften evading a pre-established topic Raimundas Malašauskas sails into open language occasionally arriving to the most familiar places: sex, love and death. This time, in order to avoid such comical effects, he sticks to his own voice as a thinnest device holding things together. A voice and a smoke machine, in fact. ‘But what is held together then’ a voice could be heard on stage.Recorded for Choreographic Devices 2022 at the ICA in London, Saturday 11 June 2022.
Without Prescription: André Lepecki and Irit Rogoff in conversation ICA 2023-05-04 | * Tickets available to the 2022 edition of Choreographic Devices at ica.art/choreographic-devices-2 *Without Prescription: André Lepecki and Irit Rogoff in conversationThe dialogue intersects Lepecki’s thinking into the kinetic and affective materialities and mobilizations within contemporary necropolitics with Rogoff’s thinking through the ‘not yet’ as an attempt to wrestle thought from the imposition of reductive rhetorics of crisis. Drawing on their expansive research into choreography as a distribution of authorial power and advanced practice as a mode of knowledge production, their conversation starts to chart what it might mean to mobilize choreographic modes and models to register and enact difference.Recorded for Choreographic Devices 2022 at the ICA in London, Saturday 11 June 2022.
Around Apart Under Behind Through Ahead: A Partial Lexicon of Spatial Dysfunction ICA 2023-05-04 | * Tickets available to the 2022 edition of Choreographic Devices at ica.art/choreographic-devices-2 *Around Apart Under Behind Through Ahead: A Partial Lexicon of Spatial DysfunctionVlatka Horvat and invited guests: Edwina Ashton, Augusto Corrieri, Critical Interruptions, Harun Morrison, Rebecca Moss, Lara Pawson, and Florian Roithmayr.Focused on rethinking built and social space as an inherently choreographic act, Vlatka Horvat’s A Partial Lexicon of Spatial Dysfunction brings the artist into dialogue with seven invited guests – artists, writers, performance makers – in an event that shifts dynamically between talks, readings, discursive presentations and performative actions. Interrogating the relation between space, objects and human interactions, especially at the point where spatial relations collapse or transform unexpectedly, Horvat’s unruly reflection on the spatial/choreographic in daily life both performs and at the same time elaborates theoretically on the ways in which normative spatial practice might be reordered to create new social, artistic and political possibilities.Recorded for Choreographic Devices 2022 at the ICA in London, Saturday 11 June 2022.
Reversible Figures ICA 2023-05-03 | * Tickets available to the 2022 edition of Choreographic Devices at ica.art/choreographic-devices-2 *Reversible FiguresMurat Adash and Tavi Meraud with Georgia Sagri, Matthias Sperling, Starhawk and soap bubble.In this session, artists Murat Adash and Tavi Meraud together with a group of co-respondents, reflect on the phenomenon of camouflage to collectively reconfigure what are taken as fundamental distinctions – between self and environment, inside and outside, the real and the virtual, and the visible and invisible. Taking the form of an expanded performance-lecture, this session interweaves movement, voice, sound, projections and interactions that emerge from the present field of relations while scaffolding shifting affective and embodied encounters. In the shared space with the audience, the co-respondents transition between thresholds of perception and recognition, figures and grounds– gauging the outlines and beginning to palpate the edges of a potential new co-becoming. Correspondences with artist Georgia Sagri, choreographer and artist Matthias Sperling, ecofeminist author and teacher Starhawk, and a traveling soap bubble establish a collective choreography thatnavigates space otherwise, beyond binaries, while thinking through questions such as: what does the body know that I do not? How does my body listen to what comes from you?Recorded for Choreographic Devices 2022 at the ICA in London, Saturday 11 June 2022.
In rehearsals with STARS: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey ICA 2023-04-13 | Book tickets to STARS at ica.art/starsAt the ICA from Thu 13 – Sat 29 Apr 2023A new Afrofuturist music play about pleasure, desire and female orgasms. STARS is a hilarious and moving mix of celebratory Black queer empowerment and arousal. Performed by one woman and a live DJ, with projected animations, we join in an old woman’s search for her lost orgasm, spanning across outer space, with dustings of African mythology and folklore in an unabashedly queer, feminist rallying call.A Tamasha and ICA co-production.
STARS: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey – Official Trailer ICA 2023-04-12 | Book tickets to STARS at ica.art/starsAt the ICA from Thu 13 – Sat 29 Apr 2023A new Afrofuturist music play about pleasure, desire and female orgasms. STARS is a hilarious and moving mix of celebratory Black queer empowerment and arousal. Performed by one woman and a live DJ, with projected animations, we join in an old woman’s search for her lost orgasm, spanning across outer space, with dustings of African mythology and folklore in an unabashedly queer, feminist rallying call.A Tamasha and ICA co-production.
The Dam | A film by Ali Cherri | Official Trailer (UK) ICA 2023-04-11 | Exclusively in cinemas from Wed 12 May Sudan, near the Merowe Dam – Maher works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile. Every evening, he secretly wanders off into the desert to build a mysterious construction made of mud. While the Sudanese people rise to claim their freedom, his creation slowly starts to take a life of its own.Tickets at ica.art/films
PRETTY V LIVE @ MINUS ONE, ICA LONDON – FULL SET #2023 #PRETTYV ICA 2023-03-27 | @qxvfhejgwk recorded 16/02/2023Film: Bobby InghamAdditional Filming: David, Theo Goff & Joe EnglandStarring: Dj Shauwdii, Dav1dthis edition of minus one was curated by kast, with guests pretty v + skins, gribs & mobbsmore events like this at ica.art/minus-one00:59 It begun so long ago (2023)04:17 Cry (2020)05:29 I’m Always Dreaming Drama Queen (2019)07:23 She Wanna Get Married (2022)09:27 YMCMB Like Lil Weezy (2023)11:24 Rick Got Em Mortified ft Dav1d (2023)13:35 Red Star Has Fallen! (2020)16:52 Girl Don’t Forget You’re Not Alone (2022)19:10 My bbyyyyyyyyyyyyyy (2023)20:20 Born Stars (2022)22:46 Restart (2023)23:59 47 Violins Falling from a Rainbow to the Ground (2022)27:40 Better than Before (2020)30:00 Purple (2020)31:36 Cracked (2020)33:09 Febony (2022)34:21 Beverly (2022)35:35 Paris (2022)39:47 HIP HOP IS BACK (2023)42:57 Mixrace Mixtape (2022)46:55 But it’s on fire (2022)48:22 Low (2022)51:34 Dior Jeans (2022)54:18 Better than Before (2020)
Screen Practices: a monthly series foregrounding collective endeavour at the ICA Cinema ICA 2023-03-22 | The ICA's monthly series foregrounding collective endeavour in the ICA Cinema. Every month, the Cinema will become a space of experimentation, collaboration and exchange programmed over a weekend by an invited collective.The series aims to embrace alternative programming and curatorial practices evolving within a fast-evolving film exhibition landscape, notably marked by fewer and fewer spaces embracing experimentation. As one of the last remaining independent spaces, the ICA aims, with the series, to bring audiences together, resisting recent industry development that have contributed to scattering them.More at ica.art/screen-practices
Myanmar Diaries | Official Trailer | ICA CINEMA ICA 2023-01-11 | In selected cinemas in UK and Ireland from 10 February 2023.Directed by a collective of filmmakers, Myanmar Diaries documents life in the country after the violent military coup of February 2021.More at ica.art/films
Beyond Interpretation (trailer) – Paranoia, conspiracy & anxiety in the American film industry ICA 2022-12-06 | A new film programme at the ICA that explores the connections between paranoia, conspiracy, anxiety, and the precarious realities of artistic creation at the margins of the American film industry.12 – 19 January 2023Book tickets at ica.art/films
Parallel Lives: The Cinema of Matías Piñeiro – Trailer ICA 2022-11-07 | At the ICA from 29 Nov – 4 December 2022:https://www.ica.art/films/parallel-lives-matias-pineiroParallel Lives presents all six of Matías Piñeiro’s feature films, including his internationally acclaimed cycle of films exploring the female characters in Shakespeare’s comedies and the UK premieres of both his latest feature Isabella and his debut feature El Hombre Robado.
Onwards and Outwards: Laura Mulvey in conversation with Joanna Hogg ICA 2022-10-20 | A part of the Onwards & Outwards film season, Laura Mulvey and Joanna Hogg join in conversation about 'the pleasures of making' following screenings of "Place of Work" and "Exhibition".ica.org.uk/whats-on/onwards-and-outwards-place-work-exhibition
(G)Round up! La Clef Revival in Four Acts - Trailer ICA 2022-10-11 | 28 - 30 October at the ICAInformation and tickets: https://www.ica.art/films/la-clef-revivalParis-based collective La Clef revival co-curate a series of programmes and events around the notions of physical venues and collective experiences, with two screenings, discussions and a symposium.
Strange Echoes Poetry Readings – Abondance Matanda, Kareem Parkins-Brown, Latekid, Olivia Douglass ICA 2022-09-27 | Abondance Matanda, Kareem Parkins-Brown, Latekid, and Olivia Douglass, accompanied by a live band, in a night of poetry readings, improvisation and live music.This night of poetry and performance took place within Shenece Oretha’s newly commissioned installation at/Tribute. Each poet shares writing that can trace its evolution from the experimentation, de/re-construction and persistence present in the work of M. NourbeSe Philip. The readings celebrate alternative poetic forms, contexts and subjects, and together become a mediation on the survival of a thriving diasporic African writing and arts culture. Recorded Thursday 24 February 2022 at the ICA, London.Time stamps:00:00 - Introduction by Olivia Douglass05:05 - Chloe Filani08:54 - Kareem Parkins-Brown30:35 - Abondance Matanda 48:22 - Olivia Douglass 01:13:35 - Latekid
John Smith: Introspective (1972 – 2022) – Official Trailer ICA 2022-09-20 | From 1 October to 1 December 2022 at the ICA and at Close-Up Film Centre. A 10-week survey of works – 50 films from 50 years – by one of Britain’s most radical, best-loved and most influential artist filmmakers.Tickets at www.ica.art/john-smith-introspective
RIP SENI – Q&A with Aji Lewis, Seni’s mother ICA 2022-09-20 | One morning in June 2020, the words ‘RIP SENI’ appeared graffitied across a public artwork outside the Bethlem Royal Hospital in south London. The words referenced Olaseni Lewis, a 23-year-old black man who died after being restrained by 11 police officers while in the care of the hospital in 2010.The Guardian produced a documentary called ‘RIP SENI’, which follows what happened after the graffiti – it launched a discussion about race, mental health and injustice in the UK, and the effects on families.This conversation was recorded at the ICA with Aji Lewis (Seni’s mother) and Lucy Owen (Executive Producer) after a screening of the film.Watch RIP SENI on The Guardian’s website:theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2021/aug/12/rip-seni-racism-graffiti-and-the-uks-mental-health-crisis-video
Holding the State to Account, presented by UFFC & INQUEST ICA 2022-09-20 | The United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) and charity INQUEST co-present on family campaigns.From Deaths in Custody, part of the public programme for War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights.
Dry Ground Burning — UK Trailer ICA 2022-08-09 | In selected cinemas from 2 September 2022.'Dry Ground Burning', a new TERRATREME production directed by Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta, explores the turbulence of contemporary Brazil through the prism of the Gasolineiras de Kebradas: fearless Chitara, her sister Léa and their all-female gang in the Sol Nascente favela on the edge of Brasília, who hijack a pipeline in order to sell oil to their community.
A Night of Knowing Nothing w/ Payal Kapadia, director ICA 2022-08-08 | The director discusses her Cannes-winning first film at FRAMES of REPRESENTATION 2021.Following the UK Premiere of A Night of Knowing Nothing as part of FRAMES of REPRESENTATION 2021, first-time director Payal Kapadia discusses the making and implications of her Cannes-winning work with Nico Marzano.A Night of Knowing Nothing is distributed across the UK and Ireland by ICA CINEMA.
Tottenham Rights: 2011 to today & Forensic Architecture: The Killing of Mark Duggan ICA 2022-08-04 | A presentation, discussion and Q&A from Stafford Scott, coordinator of Tottenham Rights, and Forensic Architecture on the 10th anniversary of the English riots beginning in Tottenham..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒..﹒..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.Part of War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights.Curated by Tottenham Rights, alongside independent curators Kamara Scott and Rianna Jade Parker.Special thanks: Tottenham Rights, Forensic Architecture, Adam Elliot-Cooper, Jude Lanchin, Stafford Scott, Eyal WeizmannRecorded 7 August 2021.
A Superabundance of Nothing · Johanna Hedva & P. Staff In Conversation ICA 2022-08-04 | The locus of the conversation will be Hedva’s GLUT: a superabundance of nothing, a sound work composed with divination and AI, which manifests as both an immersive physical installation now on view at HKW Berlin in Illiberal Arts, and as a free video game that can be downloaded at glut.website. The core of GLUT is a sound composition made entirely of Hedva’s voice, ranging from its rawest expression of screams, to two AI vocal clones that, in order to trick the surveillance tactics embedded in AI, have been manipulated to sound ever more de-human. These voices speak a text corpus that Hedva built over four lunar cycles, and synthesized through various divination techniques. The corpus is composed of the writings of medieval mystics (mostly of the apophatic tradition); theoretical physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers on black holes, dark matter, night, and nothingness; poets and novelists on sleep, music, and the voice; and the algorithm of amazon.com.The physical installation of GLUT spatializes the sound in a subtly eerie, immersive room, large enough for one person only, a little pocket of a universe that amplifies the limits of the body by simultaneously erasing them. In the GLUT videogame, users are a teratoma avatar that drags itself through an environment cheating at non-Euclidean geometry through a series of nesting black holes, intestinal tunnels, glittering caves, and oceans of black water.Hedva and Staff will use GLUT to orbit around Hedva’s recent book Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain, and their new album, Black Moon Lilith in Pisces in the 4th House, which form a web of inquiry into the proposal that doom is a liberatory (and libratory) condition. There will be specific focus on corporeal ambivalence, collapse and surrender, and whether Amazon, in predicting our desires and shaping our future, is our latest divining tool, a kind of contemporary mysticism..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒..﹒..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.Johanna Hedva (they/them) is a Korean-American writer, artist, and musician, who was raised in Los Angeles by a family of witches, and now lives in LA and Berlin. Hedva is the author of Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain (Sming Sming / Wolfman 2020), a collection of poems, performances, and essays, and the novel On Hell (Sator / Two Dollar Radio 2018). Their albums are Black Moon Lilith in Pisces in the 4th House, a doom-metal guitar and voice performance influenced by Korean shamanist ritual that was released in January 2021, and the 2019 EP The Sun and the Moon, which had two of its tracks played on the moon.P. Staff (they/them) lives and works in Los Angeles, USA and London, UK. Their work combines video installation, performance and publishing, citing the ways in which history, technology, capitalism and the law have fundamentally transformed the social constitution of our bodies today. Staff’s work has been exhibited, screened and performed internationally, including solo shows at the ICA Shanghai, China (2020); Serpentine Galleries, London (2019); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2019); MOCA, Los Angeles (2017) amongst others. They have been part of a number of significant group shows such as 13th Shanghai Biennale: Bodies of Water (2020); The Body Electric, Walker Art Center (2019); Made in LA, Hammer Museum (2018); Trigger, New Museum (2017); and the British Art Show 8 (2016).
Paul B. Preciado with Jack Halberstam ICA 2022-08-04 | I am not a man I am not a woman I am not heterosexual I am not homosexual I am not bisexual. I am a dissident of the sex-gender system. I am the multiplicity of the cosmos trapped in a binary political and epistemological system, shouting in front of you. I am a Uranian confined inside the limits of techno-scientific capitalism.– Paul B. Preciado, An Apartment on UranusPhilosopher and writer Paul B. Preciado discusses agency, gender, dissent and subjectivity with queer theorist Jack Halberstam, in a talk recorded in February 2020 as part of Critical Conversations.Building on Preciado and Halberstam’s respective bodies of work, this conversation expands on forms of living beyond the constraints of encoded gender and unpacks the propositions of Preciado’s new publication, An Apartment on Uranus (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020).In this collection of recent essays, Preciado dreams of a space where he might live beyond existing power, gender and racial structures invented by modernity. Taking in socio-political issues including the rise of neo-fascism in Europe, the migrant crisis, the Zapatista struggle in Mexico, the fight for Catalonian independence, sex work, Trump’s America, the harassment of trans children, and the technological appropriation of the uterus, An Apartment on Uranus takes a personal experience as a starting point to question the foundations of a society which excludes heterodoxy and proclaims it deviancy or illness. Considering seismic cultural shifts, Preciado asks what role museums and institutions might play in the cultural revolution to come..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒..﹒..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.Paul B. Preciado is a writer, philosopher, curator, and one of the leading thinkers in the study of gender and sexual politics. He is the author of Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era (The Feminist Press, 2013), Pornotopia: An Essay on Playboy’s Architecture and Biopolitics (Zone Books, 2014) and Countersexual Manifesto (Columbia University Press, 2018). He was previously Director of the Independent Studies Program at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona and Curator of Public Program at documenta 14 (Athens/Kassel). He is currently Associated Philosopher at the Pompidou Center in Paris.Jack Halberstam is Professor of Gender Studies and English at Columbia University. Halberstam is the author of Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters (Duke University Press, 1995), Female Masculinity (Duke University Press, 1998), In A Queer Time and Place (NYU Press, 2005), The Queer Art of Failure (Duke University Press, 2011) and Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal (Beacon Press, 2012) and, most recently, Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variance (University of California Press, 2018). Halberstam is currently working on two books on ‘wildness’: the first, titled Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire will be published in autumn 2020. The second, which is in progress, is titled The Wild Beyond Art, Architecture and Anarchy.Time stamps:0:00 - Intro by Jack Halberstam3:30 - How Jack and Paul met7:34 - Growing up, fascism and the resurgence of fascism9:15 - 'How do you signify that you're trans?'10:46 - The Place That Welcomes You.18:06 - Negotiating utopia, medical bureaucracy, choosing a name19:48 - 'My name is my name'21:36 - Deadnaming as a concept26:52 - The politics of vulnerability and identity 38:33 - Existence and Uranus39:50 - 'Dirty vulnerability' 43:23 - Uranus46:10 - Psychoanalysis, privilege, Oedipus complex 48:25 - Names and dreams, beyond psychoanalysis 59:10 - Studying historical shifts, archiving1:06:42 - Collapse of binary epistemologies1:14:16 - Audience questions begin1:15:00 - Question: "What do you think about certain BDSM practises being banned in the UK, how do we counter this?1:22:57 - Question: "How can we account for psychic suffering within this new epistemology, this possible utopia?"1:32:18 - Question: "Architecture of psychiatric care systems"1:34:01 - Question: "Can you explain your comment that lesbian identity might be the exception?"
Staying with the Violence: Womb Work and Family Abolition ICA 2022-08-04 | Writer Sophie Lewis presents a lecture drawing on her new theories of surrogacy, gestational justice and family abolition, followed by a discussion with poet Anne Boyer.With the active cells of pregnancy proven to ‘rampage’ through every tissue they touch, scientific studies have identified the genes active in embryonic development to also be implicated in cancer. As Sophie Lewis identifies in Full Surrogacy Now (Verso, 2019), Kathy Acker’s violent fictional representations of the unconsciously destructive nature of gestating do not cite such studies but do unconsciously channel their findings. Staying with the violence of gestation work – such as that unmasked by Acker – Lewis argues for a utopian approach to the problem of pregnancy, calling for ‘full surrogacy ... real surrogacy.’Full Surrogacy Now brings a unique perspective to debates around assisted reproduction, stemming from Lewis’ contention that all reproduction is assisted. Arguing for solidarity between paid and unpaid gestators, Lewis suggests that the struggles of workers in the surrogacy industry may help illuminate the path towards alternative family arrangements based on transgenerational caring relationships (or, ‘family abolition’, as it has been referred to by some utopian socialists and queer feminists). Interviewing paid surrogates alongside other gestational workers, Lewis breaks down our assumptions that children necessarily belong to those whose genetics they share, calling for the radical transformation of kinship and the institution of the family..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒..﹒..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.This lecture was recorded on 21 May 2019, as part of the I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Kathy Acker programme.A poet and essayist from Kansas City, Anne Boyer's honours include the 2018 Cy Twombly Award for Poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, a 2018 Whiting Award in nonfiction and poetry, and the 2016 CLMP award for her book of poetry, Garments Against Women. The Undying, her memoir about cancer, care, and having a body inside of history is forthcoming from Penguin UK in 2019. She is the 2018 – 2019 Judith E. Wilson poetry fellow at Cambridge University and a visiting poetry fellow at Peterhouse. Sophie Lewis, the author of Full Surrogacy Now, is a writer, translator and feminist geographer who teaches at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research in Philadelphia. She is a member of the Out of the Woods collective and an editor at Blind Field: A Journal of Cultural Inquiry. Her essays on subjects ranging from Donna Haraway to dating have appeared in The New York Times, Boston Review, Viewpoint, Salvage Quarterly, The New Socialist, The New Inquiry and The London Review of Books.
Clip from Luminous Procuress (1971) ICA 2022-08-04 | Screening at the ICA on Thursday 11 August 2022: https://www.ica.art/films/luminous-procuressSteven Arnold was one of America’s most original visual artists – a ‘queer mystic’ whose art, and life, knew no boundaries in his adopted home town of San Francisco. Luminous Procuress, his only feature, was fêted by Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol, yet was feared lost for years after its low-profile release in 1971. It’s now been found and restored to all its sensuous glory, and this vivid new restoration receives its UK premiere at the ICA.Luminous Procuress is the missing link between Flaming Creatures and Thundercrack!, an anarchic vision of a sexual utopia where gender is abstract and liberation is absolute. As The Procuress (Pandora) leads two wide-eyed young men through a wonderland of ill repute, female and male interchange and fuse, and pretty much anything goes. It’s a vivid and valuable document of LGBTQ+ history – and it’s never looked better than today.
Clip from Luminous Procuress (1971) ICA 2022-08-04 | Screening at the ICA on Thursday 11 August 2022: https://www.ica.art/films/luminous-procuressSteven Arnold was one of America’s most original visual artists – a ‘queer mystic’ whose art, and life, knew no boundaries in his adopted home town of San Francisco. Luminous Procuress, his only feature, was fêted by Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol, yet was feared lost for years after its low-profile release in 1971. It’s now been found and restored to all its sensuous glory, and this vivid new restoration receives its UK premiere at the ICA.Luminous Procuress is the missing link between Flaming Creatures and Thundercrack!, an anarchic vision of a sexual utopia where gender is abstract and liberation is absolute. As The Procuress (Pandora) leads two wide-eyed young men through a wonderland of ill repute, female and male interchange and fuse, and pretty much anything goes. It’s a vivid and valuable document of LGBTQ+ history – and it’s never looked better than today.
Carceral Aesthetics · Sable Elyse Smith, Nicole R. Fleetwood ICA 2022-08-03 | Artist and writer Sable Elyse Smith and author Nicole R. Fleetwood discuss their research into the carceral, the personal and the political. This talk was recorded in November 2019.Through work that resists simplistic narratives of criminality and justice, both Smith and Fleetwood aim to complicate the relationship between visual culture and the prison industrial complex. In this conversation, Smith and Fleetwood discuss mass imprisonment and racialised violence in the US, reflecting on questions of consent and representation while foregrounding the liberatory properties of the creative act.Fleetwood’s term ‘carceral aesthetics’ conceptualises the horror of the carceral state and the expressive capacity of those held captive within it. Her work asks how incarcerated populations turn their sentences into practices that resist the isolation, dehumanisation and austerity that prison enforces.Smith’s work counters narratives of criminality – interrogating the instability of language, power and the construct of social history. Rooted in visual explorations of ordinary objects, Smith’s work raises issues of labour, memory and class to explore how trauma embeds itself in the everyday..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒..﹒..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.Sable Elyse Smith is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and educator based in New York and Richmond, Virginia. Using video, sculpture, photography, and text, she points to the carceral, the personal, the political and the quotidian to speak about a violence that is largely unseen, and potentially imperceptible. She is currently Assistant Professor of Sculpture & Extended Media at the University of Richmond.Nicole R. Fleetwood is Professor of American Studies and Art History at Rutgers, New Brunswick. Her books are Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration (2020), On Racial Icons: Blackness and the Public Imagination (2015), and Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness (2011). She is co-editor of Aperture magazineâ's 'Prison Nation', a special issue focusing on photography's role in documenting mass incarceration and had curated numerous exhibitions and public programs on art and mass incarceration.
Sistrens in the Struggle: Black Women in Britain – A Symposium ICA 2022-08-03 | This half-day symposium featured the voices of activists, academics and artists reflecting on Black feminist/womanist traditions, the legacies of creative and political practices since the 1970s to contextualize and resist our 21st century realities.Featuring presentations by Rita Gayle, Dr Joy White, June Reid, Dr Lisa Amanda Palmer, and Diana Watt & Adele D. Jones.These presentations ran counter to dominant narratives in Black British history to provide us with the language and historical understanding of our culture, self-consciousness and identity. Black women in Britain lift as they climb and have continued to do so for decades with minimal recognition or praise. Their fierce commitment to the collective care of their communities is sometimes to their own detriment. As our carers, educators, writers, activists, labourers and friends – who are susceptible to incomparable racial and sexual abuse – Black women must be vigorously protected and honoured for their past and continued efforts, as sisters in the struggle.Programmed by Rianna Jade Parker, co-curator of War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights
The MPS Gangs Matrix: Allan Hogarth, Katrina Ffrench, Stafford Scott ICA 2022-08-03 | In 2018, a report by Amnesty International and Tottenham Rights forced the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to investigate the London-wide MPS Gangs Matrix, an information-sharing database used by the police to identify men – predominantly young Black men – who were allegedly at risk and involved in serious violent crime. The ICO acknowledged that the MPS method of data sharing with educational services, DVLA, housing associations, DWP and more was a breach of numerous forms of legislation and an intentionally harmful practice that has to be halted with urgency. The MPS has since taken over 1000 names off of the database, owing to the investigations and campaigning by Tottenham Rights and Amnesty International, but the journey is not yet finished. .﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒..﹒..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.From Corrupt Practices, part of War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights.Curated by Tottenham Rights, alongside independent curators Kamara Scott and Rianna Jade Parker. Special thanks: Kadeem Marshall-Oxley, Katrina Ffrench, Stafford Scott, Allan Hogarth. Exhibition design: Abi Wright.Recorded 4 September 2021.
The Tottenham Three · Winston Silcott, Mark Braithwaite, Stafford Scott, Jude Lanchin ICA 2022-08-03 | Two of the Tottenham Three share their story, told in their own words, on how they came to be charged, convicted and later, find justice in one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒..﹒..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.From Broadwater Farm Revisited, part of War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights.Curated by Tottenham Rights, alongside independent curators Kamara Scott and Rianna Jade Parker. Special thanks: Winston Silcott, Mark Braithwaite, Stafford Scott, Jude Lanchin. Exhibition design: Abi Wright.Recorded 28 August 2021.
Winston Trew presents The Oval Four ICA 2022-08-03 | The activist, wrongfully convicted and jailed in the 1970s for alleged theft on the London Underground, discusses his decades-long campaign work to clear his name..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒..﹒..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.From The Institutionalisation of Racism, part of War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and RightsCurated by Tottenham Rights, alongside independent curators Kamara Scott and Rianna Jade Parker. Special thanks: Winston Trew, Stafford Scott. Exhibition design: Abi Wright.Recorded 21 August 2021.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul & Simon Field on Memoria, Tilda Swinton, retracing feelings in Colombia ICA 2022-08-03 | ...
Toni Morrison Inna London: Sonic Connections and the Literary Imagination ICA 2022-08-02 | In this work, DJ Lynnée Denise offers a layered audio-visual response to the 1986 Guardian talk with Toni Morrison at the ICA. The visual essay brings together intimate reflections and propositions framed by Morrison’s 1992 novel Jazz. DJ Lynnée Denise explores the Black Atlantic sound, visuals and craft to render the life worlds behind Morrison’s oeuvre visible. Morrison’s writing is expanded into a visual vocabulary in which transatlantic conversations and new connections emerge. A praxis in translation. Claudia Jones. Eartha Kitt. Fannie Lou Hamer. Lorraine Hansberry. Winnie Mandela. Sarah Vaughn. Lady G. Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Elizabeth Cotton. Augusta Savage. Judy Mowatt. DJ Lynnée Denise creates what Louis Chude Sokei calls a diasporic “echo chamber” of Black women’s craft animated by the bricolage of drum and bass in which the sonic influences of Black Britain and Black America are an electronic undercurrent. The drum machine mixed with Morrison’s gestures, mannerisms, and reading speak to how Morrison’s is experienced through a multi-sensory engagement. In Morrison’s interview with A.S. Byatt, she references the important inspiration of paintings in her writing practice and the relationship between musicians and their audience. In this work, a visual remixing of worlds happens in which Black girls jumping rope, everyday live in Harlem, the market space in Brixton are the aesthetics to Morrison’s writing or in her words “the access to the scene”. In DJ Lynnée Denise’s rendering, “the scene” is about Black wayward diasporic women whose craft is read through astrology, the politics of refusal and the secrets of Black social life.
Five Poems for Toni Morrison ICA 2022-08-02 | On 13 March 2020, writers Ifeanyi Awachie, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Leo Hermitt, Selina Nwulu and Kareem Reid gather to share newly commissioned poems created in response to Toni Morrison’s writing.Part of Five Volumes for Toni Morrison, a convening dedicated to the life and legacy of the Nobel Prize-winning author.Find out more: https://www.ica.art/learning/volume-ii-five-poems-for-toni-morrison
The Methodologies of Gianfranco Rosi ICA 2022-08-02 | Gianfranco Rosi addresses his rigorous approach to craftsmanship and keeping the stories and human beings he encounters at the heart of his works. From his very first feature Boatman (1993) to his most recent work Notturno (2020), Rosi’s oeuvre not only foregrounds a carefully crafted aesthetic, but also pulsates a very specific vision of the real.Filmed at FRAMES of REPRESENTATION 2021, in conversation with ICA Head of Cinema and FoR founder Nico Marzano.
The Aesthetics of Framing: Roberto Minervini in conversation ICA 2022-08-02 | Filmmaker Roberto Minervini discusses his relationships with his protagonists and taking the viewer into the backyards of the American Dream.Minervini has often worked collaboratively and intimately with the American communities that are the subjects of his films. Here, he discusses his relationships with his protagonists, and how his ideas about repositioning a filmmaker’s intentions from authentically representing the community to entering a more dialogical mode of storytelling unfolds in practice. He also discusses how his cinema often looks beyond the frame, calling for debates on the causes of unrest and on the social conditions that may lead to politically inept governments and deep civic inequalities..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒...﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒..﹒..﹒.﹒.﹒.﹒.This conversation took place at FRAMES of REPRESENTATION 2021, hosted by Sandra Hebron (Head of Screen Arts at NFTS).
Leos Carax (Annette, Holy Motors) on finding the right collaborators and making films as a father ICA 2022-08-02 | In this recorded conversation during the screening of 'Annette', director Leos Carax speaks with Nico Marzano, ICA Head of Cinema, on finding the right collaborators, making films as a father, and being a spectator.
Deaths in Custody: Race and State Accountability w/ Suresh Grover & Yvette Williams ICA 2022-08-02 | Suresh Grover (The Monitoring Group) and Yvette Williams (Justice for Grenfell) present on race and state accountability.Part of the public programme for War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights.
Young Rebels on the Streets: Racism and Resistance in Southall from 1976 to 1981 ICA 2022-08-01 | Guest speakers from The Monitoring Group examine Institutional Racism and the origins of their organisation.Part of the public programme for War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights.
